Each floating step took her closer to the top, a space dark and cold. The lights below glowed red, casting evil shadows across the walls, flickering with the energy of the Lady’s words.

The air stank of blood. That was it. The horrible smell was blood, rot, and decay. It was not the pleasant decay of leaves in the fall but the stench of the long dead.

Leena struggled to regain control of her body, but all she could manage to do was watch as her body sobbed and shook as it walked up the stairs. They reached the top of the staircase leading up to the very top of the lighthouse. It was dark and smelled so rank that Leena grew nauseous.

The Lady was still rambling.

“I loved him, you know. He was so handsome and witty and cunning and manipulative! What an ass! I met with him every night he could get away from his wife, you know, and he promised me. He promised me he would leave her! And what does he do? He tells me he is leaving ME.”

In the strange, dim red light, she could see the outlines of bones and bodies, slumped around the dead lighthouse light, limbs loose, hanging, separate. Some were strung up on the ceiling, swinging gently back and forth like macabre branches. Some had been stripped of their skin and muscle in places, their exposed bones glinting pink against the light. Dried bodily fluids formed rounded shapes on the floor, like an abstract rug.

Now Leena was really crying on the inside. What could she do? What could she do?

She managed to fend off the pixies at one point, but she had the talisman before. Surely that had something to do with it! All she had was that little pink shell in her pocket. She couldn’t even move her arms to reach it if she tried.

That little pink shell.

For a brief moment, then, in that ice hut, she felt Bo had understood her. She had nothing, nothing at all, and he gave her a small token, something he found that he thought she might like. It was small enough to carry in a pocket, pretty in color, and perfect in shape with no cracks or chips. Not that finding such a thing was terribly difficult at a beach, but he wanted to make her happy.

Her heart hurt, like a wound had opened up, scabbed and fragile. Instead of weeping for herself, she started weeping for her friend. If they had gotten separated, what had happened to him? Did the pixies catch him? Was there a reason she had lost him?

He might have betrayed her.

He might have left her, but…

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He came back. He saved her from the goblins. He took her away from Icherrun. He saved her from the darkness filled men. He fed her. He listened to her after she was attacked by Tucker. He admitted he was wrong. He apologized with trembling hands.

He gave her the shell.

“You know,” the Lady spoke, her mandible clacking, “You should be honored. Honored that I decided to partake with you.” The Lady led her out to the balcony surrounding the top of the lighthouse.

Wind whipped her hair and clothes every which way. The Lady’s dress had turned to rags, her skin sagging off of weather-beaten bone. Pieces of her flesh flew off of her, into the wild wind.

“Ah! Perfect!” she cried, “A storm like that night, that night! When he, that bastard!” The Lady grabbed Leena’s shoulders with her skeletal fingers.

“That bastard,” the Lady hissed, close to her face, “That bastard told me he was going to leave me. Right here, in the lighthouse. Up on this balcony. Oh! You want to hear my story? My story? My story is this. My lover told me he would leave me. So I made it so he could never leave. Look! There!”

Leena’s head turned to the side of the lighthouse closest to the ocean. There, strung up in rope, was a disheveled skeleton, a man, with one eyeball hanging out of his socket, and the other missing. One of his arms were bare bones while the other had bloated skin, washed with sea water and ooze. His head lolled with the wind, back and forth like a flag.

“I killed him. I killed him!” the Lady screeched, “Haha! And now he can never leave! Never! That stupid bastard thought I was a fool! He’s the fool!”

Leena shook, her body contorting itself unconsciously from cold, form fear.

“N-no!” she said, her voice coming back to her, “N…n.” She struggled for words.

“Oh, hush, child,” the Lady scowled, “Like I said, we are here to hurt him, the man, the one who left you!”

The Lady gripped her hands on the balcony railing, and Leena saw her start to glow.

“Now, tell me his name. Tell me his name!” the Lady howled, her face distorting.

Leena might not trust him completely, but Bo…

No.

No.

“No,” she whispered.

The Lady whipped her head around, “Speak his name!”

“No!” Leena said more loudly.

“What? Let us teach him a lesson he will not forget! Did you forget what he has done? What he did to you?” the Lady questioned, calling over the wind into Leena’s ears.

“No! No!” Leena felt her arms loosen the more she spoke, “No! Leave him alone!” She took a step towards the Lady. The Lady scowled at her.

“Child! You know not what men wreak! Pshaw! Worthless child! Worthless whore!” In fury, the Lady grabbed Leena by the arm.

Leena pulled back, trying to escape the grip, and her foot staggered behind her. The Lady yanked, sending Leena forward.

Ah! Ah!

Leena started moving her limbs wildly, flailing them as she felt them come back to life, under her own control.

The Lady pulled again, positioning Leena to the edge of the balcony. Leena grabbed the railing, trying to duck so as not to be toppled over. The Lady pulled her up, pushing her against the railing. She was so much stronger than Leena was.

Leena saw the red glowing eyes bore into her inner core. She felt an uncomfortable worm, like something crawling in her stomach, and the Lady hesitated, her grip loosened.

Leena took the moment of hesitation, ducked, grabbed the Lady’s ankles, and heaved, pushing her up and over herself, over the railing.